So now that Ant-Man has come out I think we can officially say Phase II is over and now that we are entering Phase III...its still blowing my mind how diverse the MCU is.

I am watching Thor now as he is destroying the Bifrost and I can't help but think that's the same universe where Daredevil is. Two different settings but still in the same universe lol

That's what I love about the MCU. Everything fits together so well. The DCCU...well, we'll see. It just feels wrong for Superman to be the first truly extraordinary thing to become known to the world. Everything else has to revolve around the idea of 'he was here first and that's all there is to that' which makes the introduction of other heroes, and villains, difficult to work with from the look of things. He's the only one of the major heroes to get an origin story reboot in the pre-Justice League Part I films, and with the Suicide Squad, them having been in operation, then getting caught and buried so that no one seemingly remembers them or even knows who or what they were, and only just now getting introduced to the audience is lopsided. They can still do a good job of course, but this is just hitting me, a not-exactly-casual audience person who is a fan of the lore, from the wrong direction.

I did miss the few little things in Thor: The Dark World that would have helped make sense of things. If Asgard is allies with other realms, like those of the dwarves, they could have shown us the dwarves being used to re-forge the Bifrost with the recovered Tesseract, and maybe show that they built a containment vessel for the Aether, which otherwise didn't seem to be in cube or gemstone form and just floated around like astronaut cum. They never explain how they got it contained when they handed it over to the Collector, that's for sure. And if it wasn't kept in Asgard, what other possible good explanation could there have been for Odin to be able to drawn upon this 'dark energy' Loki mentioned in the Avengers, which was used to send Thor to Earth?

If I were writing it, I would have said the Asgardians captured the Aether and stored it where the lost Tesseract once was kept, and that was what Odin used to return Thor to Earth in the absence of the Bifrost, despite it being terribly risky due to its nature being opposed to beings of light. Then when Thor returns the Tesseract to Asgard, and they go to put it in the vault with the Aether, there is a reaction between the two gems due to their opposing nature, and because the Asgardians are unprepared to contain this energy, the Aether is transported away from there so that only the Tesseract remains. That way, once the Convergence is about to start up again, everyone should be on high alert because now they have no idea where the Aether went and no way to protect it from those who want to use it during this crisis time.

In the comics Odin has command over vast amounts of magic and was even capable of taking on several big players in the Marvel Universe at the same time.

Now based on what we have seen MCU Odin isn't near as powerful but still capable of stripping Thor of his powers and enchanting Mjnoljr with the Worthy restriction. Plus with everything else Asgard has it isnt really unlikely for him to use 'dark energy' to send Thor to Earth bit the strain may have weakened or even prematurely place him in the Odinsleep.

It was mentioned briefly by Odin the Aether was capsble of taking on a crystalized form i would however like to know how they contained it. Its a minor plot hole and not really relevant to the big picture but i would like to know.

So lets talk Spidey for a moment gang besides the Civil War appersnce what do you want to see. (If anyone elses says older Spidey Deadpool will Slater kill you lol) Personally I want to see Black Cat she is 10 years overdue an apperance and would be a great opportunity to explore with Spidey chasing her and constantly getting into trouble thanks to her bad luck ability.

In the comics Odin has command over vast amounts of magic and was even capable of taking on several big players in the Marvel Universe at the same time.

Now based on what we have seen MCU Odin isn't near as powerful but still capable of stripping Thor of his powers and enchanting Mjnoljr with the Worthy restriction. Plus with everything else Asgard has it isnt really unlikely for him to use 'dark energy' to send Thor to Earth bit the strain may have weakened or even prematurely place him in the Odinsleep.

It was mentioned briefly by Odin the Aether was capsble of taking on a crystalized form i would however like to know how they contained it. Its a minor plot hole and not really relevant to the big picture but i would like to know.

So lets talk Spidey for a moment gang besides the Civil War appersnce what do you want to see. (If anyone elses says older Spidey Deadpool will Slater kill you lol) Personally I want to see Black Cat she is 10 years overdue an apperance and would be a great opportunity to explore with Spidey chasing her and constantly getting into trouble thanks to her bad luck ability.

That's just my point, they're minor plot holes but I still want a few seconds devoted to filling them in. That's kind of important when you've got an ever-expanding story and so many details to remember, it helps to close all the doors that can be closed. Also Asgard's defenses weren't nearly as impressive as I'd expect for the one realm that is capable of policing all others in a peacekeeping effort, and the fact that Loki seems to inexplicably have disposed of Odin as of the end of The Dark World, it doesn't seem like all of this is enough to explain away this dark energy quibble, especially if we don't know what the stuff is, why they don't use it more often or what else they can do with it. It's too damn vague for my taste.

Older Spidey just ain't happening so whatever, not like I was going to see Civil War just because he's going to be in it, would still rather he just not be part of the MCU at all but again, whatever. Black Cat doesn't belong there, though, that I'm not going to bend on. She'd be much better in the standalone Spidey film Sony will be making. I want a good explanation of her luck-changing ability, though. Maybe she can be an Inhuman if she's technically part of the MCU? That would account for it and help put them in the big screen spotlight instead of just relying on Agents of SHIELD to set up their movie.

Oh, and I just started watching Arrow on Netflix. It's not half bad, better than I expected from what some people have told me they felt about it, although I can't deny some of the acting is atrocious and a few of the dialogue scenes sound like they were written to sound super corny and forced. Like there was no effort to put an individual writer's creative spin on them. So glad Daredevil didn't go down that route. They play around with the morality vs. reality dilemma but at least they were more serious when they discussed it. The exposition never felt unnatural or shoehorned in.

For a stand alone Spidey film? I would like to see the Silver Sable make an appearance.... For the age maybe they are trying a Harry Potter approach? You know get the young Spidey so they can age him as the movies go?

For a stand alone Spidey film? I would like to see the Silver Sable make an appearance.... For the age maybe they are trying a Harry Potter approach? You know get the young Spidey so they can age him as the movies go?

They're already doing that on the Ultimate Spider-Man cartoon. They've got him, the Sam Alexander version of Nova, original character White Tiger (Ava Ayala version), and young versions of Iron Fist and Luke Cage, the both of whom are getting their own shows soon, for their adult incarnations. I wouldn't want to see Spidey getting a team since if he's already being put in the Avengers as a young rookie, him having another team on the side makes no sense. Plus Sony doesn't own any of the other studios' characters so unless they re-work their deal and Marvel lends them some characters for Spidey's standalone, that's not likely. It was a struggle just to put the deal together as it is, from the sound of things. There are plenty of characters within the Spiderverse alone that could make things interesting. Black Cat, any of the clones of Parker, frenemies like reformed Venom, etc. Which leaves me scratching my head and wondering why they couldn't make it work before.

They've made more casting announcements. Mr. Terrific has been cast in Arrow. Rumors flying about that Diggle's costume has similarities to The Guardian. The Flash is adding more speedsters, Zoom, Wally West, and Jay Garrick. Guggenheim debunked rumor that Green Lantern will appear on Arrow. Since I guess they announced a Green Lantern Corps movie. And Supergirl is adding Lucy Lane and possibly she will be in the role of Superwoman?

They've made more casting announcements. Mr. Terrific has been cast in Arrow. Rumors flying about that Diggle's costume has similarities to The Guardian. The Flash is adding more speedsters, Zoom, Wally West, and Jay Garrick. Guggenheim debunked rumor that Green Lantern will appear on Arrow. Since I guess they announced a Green Lantern Corps movie. And Supergirl is adding Lucy Lane and possibly she will be in the role of Superwoman?

Speaking of casting announcements, it looks like they confirmed that the White Witch of Narnia is going to be the Ancient One in Doctor Strange.

Oh, and this one slipped under my radar: They finally cast Iron Fist for the fourth and final Netflix/Marvel cooperative TV show! Some guy I've never heard of called Erryn Arkin. Gonna see if I can check out any of his other stuff so I can see how I feel about it. I'm kind of butt-hurt by them not choosing Michael Angarano, who was my favorite candidate because of his performance in the Forbidden Kingdom and the fact that the director was singing praises to him about his devotion to practicing martial arts throughout the production, but then again, the rest of the headline characters are all being played by actors who are at least 33 as of now so he'd probably be a bit too young to 'fit in' properly (hint hint, Spidey...sorry, can't stop beating a dead horse) with the rest of the Defenders, so at least I can understand that.

Rumos are flying that Rachel McAdams is a frontrunner to play the female lead in the Doctor Strange movie. There are two possibilities. The strong one being Clea, the daughter of Dormoruu (sp?) and the other being Morgana who was a writing a book about Doctor Strange. But, that character seems unlikely due to the minor subplot she was involved in and the fact she was involved with Doctor Strange's vampire brother Baron Blood.

Rumos are flying that Rachel McAdams is a frontrunner to play the female lead in the Doctor Strange movie. There are two possibilities. The strong one being Clea, the daughter of Dormoruu (sp?) and the other being Morgana who was a writing a book about Doctor Strange. But, that character seems unlikely due to the minor subplot she was involved in and the fact she was involved with Doctor Strange's vampire brother Baron Blood.

I'd heard the rumors, not 100% consensus about who she'll be playing though. If they're not going to put him up against Dormammu this first outing, bringing in his relation, Clea, makes sense since it will build up to that but if they're bringing him in right away then having her around will be a tad predictable, i.e. the 'good bad girl' who may or may not redeem herself by helping in the end or whatever. But any big-namer in the biz would be crazy not to demand to be someone with powers in these things so if she's not going to play some fellow doctor or something like in the animated adaptation from 2007, then Clea is probably the best bet.

It would make sense to use Clea and Dormammu in the film as he was a primary antagonist within the Doctor Strange comics. Wasn't Clea at one point an apprentice to Doctor Strange as well as lover? Plus, it would open up alot more possibilities for films down the road and events for the tv shows.

On the DC side, rumors surfaced that Tyrese Gibson was in talks to join the Green Lantern Corps film. I just hope they do a proper Green Lantern suit, not the CGI one.

It would make sense to use Clea and Dormammu in the film as he was a primary antagonist within the Doctor Strange comics. Wasn't Clea at one point an apprentice to Doctor Strange as well as lover? Plus, it would open up alot more possibilities for films down the road and events for the tv shows.

On the DC side, rumors surfaced that Tyrese Gibson was in talks to join the Green Lantern Corps film. I just hope they do a proper Green Lantern suit, not the CGI one.

I'd rather they build up to Dormammu with just Mordo and Strange's first major enemy, Nightmare. I'd really love to see how they can work with something that horrifying on the screen since I think this one is supposed to be more of a horror film, something far darker than Marvel has done so far which I think is a nice change of pace. Then Dormammu, the big daddy of all these other, lesser demon lords from other dimensions, can decide Strange is enough of a threat to deal with personally. Of course if this is Strange's only major appearance outside of an Avengers film, they'd have to do Dormammu now if they're not planning a sequel for Phase 4. But he's also supposed to be taking on Scarlet Witch as an apprentice so he'll have significant female companionship in this film if McAdams is not just a rumor after all.

I heard years ago Tyrese Gibson was supposed to be Luke Cage in a motion picture but that never panned out. Too bad they didn't keep talking to him for the TV show, that might have been a possibility (how old is he, though? I think 33-35 is the age they were aiming for with the Defenders lineup) but if they're going for it with John Stewart's Green Lantern, I'm cool with that too, DC needs to not make the same kind of faux pas as Marvel and introduce some more primary characters that aren't just exclusively white before the majority of their films are released. And yeah, the CGI suit was ludicrous but unless they can make it look something like Superman's Man of Steel costume material and not something like Spider-Man's, I don't think we'll be able to take it any more seriously.

So out of curiousity who do you think will be on which side in the upcoming Civil War movie? Team Stark or Team Rogers?

Falcon will obviously side with Cap while War Machine with Stark but what about the others?

Since we have Ant-Man, Black Panther, Black Widow, Hawkeye, Scarlet Witch and others confirmed who do you think they will choose? I can't see any of the original Avengers joining up with Iron Man after what happened with Ultron...

I think there was an article which mentioned who was on which side. Bruce Banner and Thor haven't been mentioned as being involved yet. Nick Fury and Maria Hill aren't appearing. Maria Hill in the comic books worked for Tony during Civil War.

Black Widow might side with Cap. Same with Scarlet Witch after events of Age of Ultron. Vision might side with Cap but considering Jarvis was uploaded into Vision he might side with Tony.

Burce Banner probably would side with Cap to try to redeem himself, or not take sides.

Thor might not take sides either as things are occuring in Asgard for events of Ragnorak.

Just got back from seeing Ant-Man in 3D. Here is the portion of my post that will not contain spoilers: FUCKING AWESOME! Loved it, loved it, loved it. Laughed my balls off almost the whole time. Michael Pena really stole the show in every scene he was in. Nice amount of drama to balance out the humor too, and none of it forced like in Thor: The Dark World.

Now for spoilers and replies to other posts:

Spoiler: Click to Show/Hide

Since the end credits scene of Ant-Man showed that Falcon and Cap had found Bucky, there's no need for them to be looking for him in Civil War, he's already there, although whether he's rehabilitated or not is up in the air. Fucking awesome scene when Ant-Man took Falcon to school, by the way. "It's very important to me that Cap not hear about any of this." LMAO! That being said, it sounds like Falcon and Ant-Man are going to be on Cap's side as far as wanting to keep regulation out of the superhero sphere, and presumably War Machine will be on Tony's side if only because of their friendship and Rhodey's being a military man without the difference of being Cap's friend instead like Falcon. Scarlet Witch sounds like she could go either way, though her vendetta against Stark may put her on Cap's side. One has to wonder what T'Challa will do, but if Klaw/Klaue persists in being a nuisance he may side with Tony just to put some control on supervillainy too.

And I thought I heard somewhere that Coulson was no longer going to be appearing in any of the cinematic films. Could just be a rumor but without a single mention of him in Phase 2, and the fact that many people connected closely to the main characters (Maria Hill, Sif, etc.) who know about him being alive still, makes it seem unlikely that this won't have any significance in the future, particularly now when he's assembling a superhuman roster which just begs to play a part in the Civil War coming up. Also, I forget who exactly mentioned it but someone in Ant-Man said, "they've got someone who swings, someone who climbs up walls..." and I wasn't sure if they were talking about the same person in both descriptions because that REALLY sounds like Spider-Man so are they hinting at him already or what?

It was not revealed what Maria Hill divulged to Tony Stark when she went to work for him. And, it is doubtful that most of Coulson and his teams activities have not gone unnoticed either. Especially with the revealation about the Inhumans. It is entirely possible that Gonzales's S.H.I.E.L.D. 2.0 team could have reported information to Tony Stark. There are still those who were with Gonzales who are still around, Mockingbird for one.

Black Panther might not side with Tony, he could see him as similar to Klue. Tony was responsible for events in Age of Ultron by creating Ultron. Black Panther could be the wild card sought by both sides.

It was not revealed what Maria Hill divulged to Tony Stark when she went to work for him. And, it is doubtful that most of Coulson and his teams activities have not gone unnoticed either. Especially with the revealation about the Inhumans. It is entirely possible that Gonzales's S.H.I.E.L.D. 2.0 team could have reported information to Tony Stark. There are still those who were with Gonzales who are still around, Mockingbird for one.

Black Panther might not side with Tony, he could see him as similar to Klue. Tony was responsible for events in Age of Ultron by creating Ultron. Black Panther could be the wild card sought by both sides.

But didn't Mockingbird say she's giving up this business? She certainly deserves to retire with distinction for her service. After all she was put through in the end there, no one could blame her for wanting to hang up the sticks.

Oh, and just as of this morning it looks like Rachel McAdams confirmed she has been cast as the leading lady in Doctor Strange, just not as who so we'll have to wait and find out who it is she'll be playing.

So, it seems that Ant-Man is a success? If it truly is a good movie, then I must say that Marvel seems to be capable of doing wonders even with their bad properties.

If so, I hereby issue a challenge - I want to see an MCU movie featuring these guys:

Hey, if Marvel managed to make Ant-Man work..!

Hey, they did a decent job with Big Hero 6, I don't see why Disneymarvel can't make those critters into a kids' classic. But bringing them into the MCU? I think Rocket Raccoon is the limit on their talking animal quota. Unless maybe we'll see a glimpse of them in a flashback to the lab where Rocket was created, or as residents of a planet where talking animals come from in a future Guardians of the Galaxy movie. But stars of their own movie? I think the corporate minds know when a talking animal will work and when it won't (but I believe they know almost nothing else), and Rocket was probably one of the rare occasions where it works in an adult themed movie. Like how Jaws set the standard for rarely showing the monster in horror movies and all it does now is annoy the audience. Sometimes they figure it out, sometimes they don't.

Good points (although, if you're right about the "talking animals quota", then we'll never see Howard the Duck in the MCU... aside from that one post-credits scene in Guardians). All right then! How about him:

Kinda ironic that Cumberbatch played Sherlock while McAdams played Irina Adler in another version of Sherlock Holmes that starred RobertDowney Jr. Lol

So now that Ant-Man is out its going to be till May 2016 we see the next movie in the MCU but we should have the Netflix series to hold us over in the meantime.

So that said thoughts on the new Fantastic Four movie? No doubt Fox is going to push for sequels but I'm kinda curious as to what the FF movie rights include character wise outside of the main cast, Doom, Silver Surfer, and Galactus. Namor had a thing for Sue Storm but his movie rights are not included. Thoughts?